Page 29 of My Mountain Man Stalker
“Yeah,” I mutter. “A setup.”
Nate doesn’t look up. “Explain.”
I rub my hand down my face, trying to hold in the scream I feel crawling up my throat. “They knew we’d come for the car. Knew we’d bite on the breadcrumb trail. Every ‘tip’ we’ve gotten came through the same filtered channel. None of it organic. No noise from street rats, no heat from watchers. This isn’t a hunt.”
Nate stiffens. “It’s bait.”
And I took it.
My phone pings. Sharp and loud in the silence that follows.
I grab it from my chest rig and thumb open the alert.
It’s from the motion sensor at the cabin.
Zone 3 breach – front door. Camera active.
My pulse slams into overdrive. I open the live feed.
What I see sends my world into a white-hot blur.
Wren.
Kicking. Screaming.
Dragged from the cabin porch by two men in dark clothes.
One of them turns just enough for the camera to catch a glimpse of his face.
Liam.
My vision tunnels. My body goes cold. Not ice—steel.
Nate sees it. “What is it?”
I shove the phone at him. “They took her.”
Micah swears under his breath and whips the wheel hard, doing a 180 on the two-lane road. Tires scream. Gravel flies. I’m already calling up the GPS location of the cabin, but I know it’s too late for intercept.
They planned this. They plannedme.
While I was out chasing ghosts, they were circling her like wolves. Waiting for the moment I was far enough away.
“Front camera’s down,” Nate says, voice clipped. “Shut off at the source. Last signal cut three minutes ago.”
Micah punches the dash. “They blacked it out. No tracker on the vehicle?”
“Only tagged the last one,” I say. “They switched rides. New plates. Probably a burner truck. Military-grade clean-up.”
Nate narrows his eyes. “Means they’ve got money. Help.”
“Yeah,” I growl. “And now they’ve gother.”
My fists clench until my knuckles crack. I want to tear through the mountains. I want to drag Liam out by his spine. But I can’t afford rage—not yet.
I need precision.
“Go dark,” I tell Nate. “Wipe the plate leads. No digital trail. If they smell us coming, they’ll vanish.”
